The Last Thing I Saw

Ep. 330: David Schwartz on A Theater Near You series at MoMA + Nitrate Picture Show 2025 Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The repertory cinemas of New York were a formative influence on me and so I was excited to see a new film series at the Museum of Modern Art that surveys their programming, called A Theater Near You. David Schwartz, the former chief curator at the Museum of the Moving Image, guest-programmed the series, and he joins the podcast to talk about how the specific films in the program capture the particular flavors of New York cinemas past, such as the Bleecker Street Cinema, the Public, and the pioneering Cinema 16, brainchild of New York Film Festival co-founder Amos Vogel. Then on the second half of our chat, Schwartz talks about the latest Nitrate Picture Show at the George Eastman Museum, the festival that shows exclusively nitrate prints, including La Ronde, The Destroyers of Our Gardens, and more. “A Theater Near You” runs through July 11 at the Museum of Modern Art. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 329: Edo Choi on Mikio Naruse at Metrograph: When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Scattered Clouds, Wife! Be Like a Rose!, and more Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. There are retrospectives that remain close to one's heart and for me, one such was an immersion in Mikio Naruse's work many years ago at Film Forum. Fortunately, film history can repeat itself in a good way: Metrograph and Japan Society have teamed up for a Naruse retrospective on his 120th anniversary. I spoke with Edo Choi, a film programmer at Metrograph and past guest on the program, about Naruse's rich and perhaps still underappreciated body of work, as well as its context within Japanese cinema. Among the films discussed: When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Wife! Be Like a Rose!, Floating Clouds, and perhaps one of the great swan songs, Scattered Clouds, before Naruse's death in 1969. Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us continues through the end of the month at Metrograph. For listeners outside of New York, select films are available on the Criterion Channel. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 328: Michael Koresky on his new book Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness - The Children's Hour, These Three, Tea and Sympathy, Dance Girl Dance, and more Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I was a huge fan of Michael Koresky's last book, Films of Endearment, and so I leapt into action when I heard about his latest, Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness. Koresky is now Senior Curator of Film at Museum of the Moving Image, and, as he points out, his book has roots in his column I had the privilege of editing at Film Comment, Queer and Now and Then. I spoke with him about some pivotal titles in his deeply researched chronicle of under-the-radar queer cinema from the 1930s to the 1960s, and the fascinating work that could emerge under Hollywood's censorship regime: These Three and The Children's Hour, two adaptations of Lillian Hellman's play, both directed by William Wyler; Dorothy Arzner's Dance, Girl, Dance; Vincente Minnelli's oft-maligned Tea & Sympathy; and more. “Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness” by Michael Koresky is available now, published by Bloomsbury. On June 22, Tea & Sympathy will screen with Koresky in conversation at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of a special book event. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 327: Eric Hynes on Post-Cannes Catch-Up: I Only Rest in the Storm, The Last One for the Road, A Useful Ghost, Militantropos, plus Yes and Renoir Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2025 Cannes Film Festival is over, but there were still a few films that I really thought you should hear about too! So, back on the program for a catch-up episode back home is Eric Hynes of the Jacob Burns Film Center (whom I'd also been talking with on the ground in Cannes). Our post-Cannes discussion includes award-winners, personal favorites, and overlooked titles: I Only Rest in the Storm (directed by Pedro Pinho), The Last One for the Road (Francesco Sossai), A Useful Ghost (Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke), and Militantropos (Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova, Simon Mozgovyi), plus a few words on Nadav Lapid's latest, Yes, and Chie Hayakawa's Renoir. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 326: Manohla Dargis on Cannes 2025: Sentimental Value, Eddington, The Mastermind, Resurrection, Homebound, The Secret Agent, Sirat, The Plague, Jafar Panahi, Scarlett Johansson Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. It's become a wonderful tradition at The Last Thing I Saw to conclude the Cannes Film Festival with a very special guest: Manohla Dargis, chief film critic of The New York Times. For the 2025 edition, we discuss a whole slew of films: Sentimental Value (directed by Joachim Trier), Eddington (Ari Aster), The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt), Resurrection (Bi Gan), Homebound (Neeraj Ghaywan), The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonca Filho), Sirat (Oliver Laxe), The Plague (Charlie Polinger). Dargis also considers the state of the industry and speaks about Jafar Panahi and Scarlett Johansson, both of whom she interviewed. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 325: K.J. Relth-Miller on Cannes Classics: Red Canyon, Saïd Effendi, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hardboiled, Merlusse Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm catching up with my conversations at the Cannes Film Festival with another all-star cast of guests. This year I sat down again with K.J. Relth-Miller of the Academy Museum in Los Angeles for our annual Cannes Classics chat. Films discussed include: Red Canyon (directed by George Sherman, presented by Quentin Tarantino), Saïd Effendi (Kameran Husni), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman), Hardboiled (John Woo), and Merlusse (Marcel Pagnol), with a word for the Cannes Classics documentary selection. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 324: Justin Chang on Cannes 2025: Sirat, Woman and Child, The Little Sister, Jeunes Mères, My Father's Shadow, Palme Pensées Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm back at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about the highlights with another all-star cast of guests. This episode I sat down with the delightful Justin Chang of The New Yorker right near the end of the festival, when even a power outage in Cannes could not stop the show from going on! We discussed Sirat (directed by Oliver Laxe), My Father's Shadow (Akinola Davies Jr.), The Little Sister (Hafsia Herzi), Woman and Child (Saeed Roustaee), and Jeunes Mères (Young Mothers, from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne). Plus: Justin logs his thoughts on what film might win the Palme d'Or. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 323: Jessica Kiang on Bi Gan's Resurrection and Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm back at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about the highlights with another all-star cast of guests. This episode I sat down with Jessica Kiang who kindly gives virtuosic readings of two standouts from late in the festival: Resurrection (directed by Bi Gan) and The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt), plus some thoughts on what films she'd like to see win awards. Kiang is as usual writing reviews for Variety at Cannes; she is also programmer at Belfast Film Festival and a member of the selection committee of the Berlinale. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 322: Inney Prakash on Cannes 2025: Miroirs No. 3, Alpha, Magellan, Days and Nights in the Forest, The Girls, Homebound Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm back at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about the highlights with another all-star cast of guests. This episode I sat down with Inney Prakash, a curator of film programs at Asia Society in New York and the founder and director of Prismatic Ground. We spoke about several films at the festival: Miroirs No. 3 (directed by Christian Petzold), Alpha (Julia Ducournau), Magellan (Lav Diaz), Homebound (Neeraj Ghaywan). Plus: two outstanding Cannes Classics selections—Satyajit Ray's Days and Nights in the Forest (introduced by Wes Anderson and attended by Sharmila Tagore), and Sumitra Peries' Gehenu Lamai (The Girls). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 321: Alissa Wilkinson on Cannes 2025: Un Simple Accident, Pillion, Eleanor the Great, The Plague, Spike Lee Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm back at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about the highlights with another all-star cast of guests. This episode I sat down with Alissa Wilkinson, a New York Times movie critic who also has a new book out, We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine. We spoke about the return of Jafar Panahi, in person, to Cannes, with his latest, Un Simple Accident (aka It Was Just an Accident), and three debut features: Eleanor the Great (Scarlett Johansson), Pillion (Harry Lighton), and The Plague (Charlie Polinger). Plus a few words on Spike Lee's latest, Highest 2 Lowest. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 320: Guy Lodge on Romeria, The History of Sound, Un Poeta, La Ola (The Wave) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm back at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about the highlights with another all-star cast of guests. This episode we sat down again with Guy Lodge of Variety, discussing a number of films including: Romería (directed by Carla Simón), The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor), Un Poeta (Simon Mesa Soto), and La Ola (The Wave) (Sebastián Lelio). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 319: Eric Hynes on Die My Love, The Love That Remains, The Chronology of Water, Imago Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm back at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about the highlights with another all-star cast of guests. This episode we sat down again with intrepid regular Eric Hynes of the Jacob Burns Film Center to catch up with a few richly realized movies: Die My Love (directed by Lynne Ramsay, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek), The Love That Remains (Hlynur Palmason), The Chronology of Water (Kristen Stewart), and the documentary Imago (Déni Oumar Pitsaev). After we recorded, Imago won the Jury Prize in its section, Critics' Week. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 318: Mark Asch on The Phoenician Scheme, Drunken Noodles, Lucky Lu, a dab of The Secret Agent Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm back at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about the highlights with another all-star cast of guests. This episode we'll hear from critic Mark Asch about a few movies from across three different sections: The Phoenician Scheme (directed by Wes Anderson, in competition), Lucky Lu (Lloyd Lee Choi, in Directors' Fortnight), and Drunken Noodles (Lucio Castro, in ACID). Asch, who has a track record for talking about prize-winning films on The Last Thing I Saw, also slips in some words about The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonca Filho). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 317: Jonathan Romney on The Secret Agent, New Wave, Exit 8, Once Upon a Time in Gaza Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm back at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about the highlights with another all-star cast of guests. This episode we'll hear from Jonathan Romney, a critic for Screen Daily and the Observer, about a few movies around the midpoint of the festival. Films discussed include: The Secret Agent (directed by Kleber Mendonca Filho), New Wave (Richard Linklater), Exit 8 (Genki Kawamura), and Once Upon a Time in Gaza (Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 316: Robert Daniels on Eddington, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Raoul Peck's Orwell Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm back at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about the highlights with another all-star cast of guests. This time I'm very pleased to sit down with Robert Daniels, associate editor at RogerEbert.com and a columnist and reviewer at The New York Times, among other writing. We focus on a few films spanning a wide variety of form and genre: Eddington (Ari Aster), Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie), and the documentary Orwell: 2+5=5 (Raoul Peck). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 315: Jordan Cronk on Cannes 2025: Sirat, Urchin, Her Will Be Done, Directors' Fortnight Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm back at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about the highlights with another all-star cast of guests! For this episode I sit down with Jordan Cronk, critic and programmer, who this year is also on the Directors' Fortnight committee. Films discussed include: Sirat (directed by Oliver Laxe), Urchin (Harris Dickinson), Her Will Be Done (Julia Kowalski), and The President's Cake (Hasan Hadi). Cronk also previews a few other Directors' Fortnight titles including Lucky Lu, Kokoho, Dangerous Animals, and Peak Everything. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 314: Eric Hynes on Cannes 2025: Two Prosecutors, Case 137, Two Critics Week Highlights Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2025 Cannes Film Festival has begun and I'm back to talk about movies with another all-star cast of guests. For this episode I sit down with Eric Hynes of the Jacob Burns Film Center to talk about movies in the early part of the festival, including Two Prosecutors (Sergei Loznitsa), Case 137 (Dominik Moll), and two highlights from Critics' Week, Reedland (Sven Bresser) and Left-Handed Girl (Shih-Ching Tsou). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 313: Alison Willmore on Cannes 2025: Sound of Falling, Enzo, and a look at the lineup Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2025 Cannes Film Festival has begun and I'm back to talk about movies with another all-star cast of guests. To kick off this year's series, I'm delighted to welcome Alison Willmore of Vulture and New York Magazine for her debut on the podcast, starting with a bang: the first great movie at the festival, Sound of Falling, directed by Mascha Schilinski. We also rattle off a few probable attention-getters in this year's edition, and discuss another, intriguing early premiere, Enzo, a film by the late Laurent Cantet, directed by Robin Campillo. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 312: R. Emmet Sweeney on Tomonari Nishikawa, Minecraft, Long Gone, Crac!, plus Sinners and The Sniper Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I'm pleased to welcome back a friend of the podcast, R. Emmet Sweeney, who produces physical media for Kino Lorber and writes about movies as well as music. He runs a thriving substack newsletter called Old New, where he recently assembled remembrances of the filmmaker Tomonari Nishikawa, who recently passed away. We talked a bit about Nishikawa's movies, as well as baseball picture Long Gone, Minecraft, the Canadian animated short Crac! (a selection from Light Industry's recent Children's Cinema), with a few words from me on Ryan Coogler's Sinners and The Sniper, an Edward Dmytryk joint featured in the Columbia Pictures series at the Museum of Modern Art. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 311: Radu Jude on his film Kontinental '25, reflecting the world today, and going back to basics Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. It's not every day that I feature the same filmmaker twice in two years on the podcast, but we'll make a delightful exception for Radu Jude, director of Kontinental '25. I spoke with Jude about Kontinental '25 at the Berlin Film Festival, where his film won a Silver Bear, and where Jude previously won the Golden Bear for Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn. Kontinental '25 follows a bailiff (an outstanding Eszter Tompa) who faces a personal reckoning after she evicts a man. True to the director of the rambunctious Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, our conversation features his thoughtful reflections on living in the world today, on filmmaking technique, on dinosaur parks, and on what he's been reading and watching. Kontinental '25 will be released theatrically in North America by 1-2 Special. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 310: Amy Taubin on Dying for Sex, The Shrouds, Adolescence, Marina Zurkow, Hoberman Book, Black Bag, Zero Day, Mickey 17, plus Warfare Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. What better way to begin the glorious spring than a deluxe episode with the one and only Amy Taubin! The legendary critic returns to the podcast to talk about what she's been watching, seeing, and reading. Among the works discussed: Dying for Sex, Adolescence, Black Bag, The Shrouds, J. Hoberman's new book Everything Is Now, Marina Zurkow's Whitney show, shows of John Zorn and Ericka Beckman at the Drawing Center, Zero Day, Mickey 17, and more. I chime in with some thoughts on Warfare and 2,000 Meters to Andriivka and some recent reading. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 309: Jourdain Searles on Lurker, Mad Bills to Pay, Dead Lover, Together, By Design, Desert Fury Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. One of my absolute favorite critics working today is Jourdain Searles, a contributor to several publications (The Film Stage, Hollywood Reporter) and DVD/Blu-ray labels, but I also avidly read her X posts which offer a sharp running critique on films new and old. Searles joins the podcast to discuss a couple of big films screening in New Directors / New Films—Lurker (the Closing Night selection, directed by Alex Russell) and Mad Bills to Pay (Joel Alfonso Vargas)—and some other notable titles from Sundance like Dead Lover (Grace Glowicki), Together (Michael Shanks), and By Design (Amanda Kramer). Plus: the last film she saw at the time of recording: Desert Fury (1947, Lewis Allen). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 308: Karina Longworth on You Must Remember This: The Old Man Is Still Alive – Capra, Ford, Donen, Wyler, and Co. Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Karina Longworth's You Must Remember This podcast needs no introduction for her erudite, wildly popular considerations of Hollywood film history, and in her latest season of episodes, she looks at the late-career work of major directors through a variety of lenses. I was delighted to welcome Longworth to the latest episode of The Last Thing I Saw to discuss her selection of filmmakers and their often idiosyncratic later works, including Frank Capra, Stanley Donen, John Ford, Otto Preminger, and William Wyler. She also makes a pick or two of contemporary directors we might consider in their twilight today... Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 306: Olivier Assayas on his film Suspended Time, personal filmmaking, and recent favorites Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This weekend, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema presents the latest Olivier Assayas film, Suspended Time—a thoughtful and funny chronicle set in the French countryside during pandemic lockdown. Set in Assayas's parents' house, it's about much more, circling his relationship with his rock critic brother—whom he isolated with, along with their partners—and the feelings of reckoning with mortality and the past that are stirred up. I spoke with Assayas when Suspended Time originally premiered in Berlin about fictionalizing his experience, the introspection of the pandemic, the directors that influenced him, his recent viewing, and where his Irma Vep series fit into all of this. Vincent Macaigne (also in the Irma Vep series) and Micha Lescot co-star as the brothers Assayas. Suspended Time screens March 14 and 16 at Film at Lincoln Center as part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2025. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 307: Bruce Bennett Returns! Two by Kaneto Shindo, Breezy, Anita Pallenberg, Nightshift, My First Film Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. First, some news: It's a wonderful honor to be presenting a special double screening at the wonderful Light Industry on March 18: An Evening with The Last Thing I Saw! The films that I'll be presenting spring forth from chats on... The Last Thing I Saw. One of these chats is the latest with Bruce Bennett, returns to the podcast to share another treasure chest of movies. We start with two films written by the relentlessly sharp Kaneto Shindo: Devil's Temple (1969) and The Whale God (1962, aka Killer Whale). What follows ranges from Clint Eastwood's Breezy (1973) to Zia Anger's My First Film to a little word on Nightshift (1981) from your host. Kaneto Shindo's work comprises one half of the March 18 double feature at Light Industry: Elegant Beast, written by Kaneto Shindo and directed by Yūzō Kawashima. The other half is Fate, from the rarely screened directorial oeuvre of Fred Kelemen, DP for Béla Tarr (The Turin Horse, The Man from London) among others. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 305: K.J. Relth-Miller on Berlinale Classics: Tenderness of the Wolves, Solo Sunny, Spare Parts, Don't Cheat, Darling! Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I welcome back K.J. Relth-Miller, director of film programs at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, to hear about her latest travels through new restorations and revivals. As we did last year, we explore this year's Berlinale Classics, a section at the Berlin film festival devoted to restorations and revivals. Our focus is “Wild, Weird, Bloody!”—a series devoted to German genre cinema in all its splendor. We discuss films ranging from horror to musical to crime drama, including: Tenderness of the Wolves (directed by Ulli Lommel), Solo Sunny (Konrad Wolf), Spare Parts (Rainer Erler), Don't Cheat, Darling! (Joachim Hasler), and Hat Off When You Kiss (Rolf Losansky). Plus: a new Hitchcock restoration, The Paradine Case. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 304: Eric Hynes on True/False 2025: WTO/99, A Body to Live In, Resurrection, Kouté vwa, The Undergrowth Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The True/False Film Festival brings outstanding nonfiction films and filmmakers to Columbia, Missouri, each year, attracting world premieres and also curating from Sundance, IDFA, Berlin, and beyond. I sat down in Columbia with fellow True/False-goer Eric Hynes, senior curator of film at Museum of the Moving Image, to exchange some highlights from our time at the 2025 edition. Films discussed include: Resurrection (directed by Hu Sanshou), A Body to Live In (Angelo Madsen), WTO/99 (Ian Bell), The Undergrowth (Macu Machin), and Kouté vwa (Listen to the Voices) (Maxime Jean-Baptiste). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 303: Justin Chang on Berlin 2025: Blue Moon, Dreams (Sex Love), Girls on Wire Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For my latest dispatch from the Berlin film festival, I sat down with Justin Chang, film critic at The New Yorker (which, as it turns out, makes an appearance in one of the movies!). Films discussed include: the Golden Bear winner Dreams (Sex Love) from director Dag Johan Haugerud, Blue Moon (directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke and Andrew Scott, who won a Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance), and Girls on Fire from director Vivian Qu. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 302: Dan Sullivan on Berlin 2025: The Ice Tower, Little Trouble Girls, Smile at Last, Canone Effimero Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For my latest dispatch from the Berlin film festival, I sat down with Dan Sullivan, a programmer at Film at Lincoln Center (and also, as he points out, a former colleague!). Films discussed include: The Ice Tower (Lucile Hadzihalilovic), Smile at Last (Leida Laius and Arvo Iho), Little Trouble Girls (Urska Djukic), Living the Land (Huo Meng), and Canone Effimero (Gianluca De Serio and Massimiliano De Serio), with a word for Mary Bronstein's If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, having its international premiere in Berlin. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 301: Guy Lodge on Berlin 2025: Kontinental '25, Living the Land, Eel, Shoah doc All I Had Was Nothingness Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For my latest dispatch from the Berlin film festival, I sat down with Guy Lodge of Variety to talk about another batch of highlights from across the lineup. The titles we discussed include: Kontinental '25 (directed by Radu Jude), Living the Land (Huo Meng), the stunning debut feature Eel (Chu Chun-teng), and a documentary about Claude Lanzmann's making of Shoah, All I Had Was Nothingness (Guillaume Ribot). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 300: Julia Loktev on My Undesirable Friends: Part I—Last Air in Moscow Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Last October I interviewed the filmmaker Julia Loktev during the New York Film Festival about her latest work, My Undesirable Friends: Part I—Last Air in Moscow. This week her film has its international premiere at the Berlinale. It's about independent journalists in Russia before and after the start of Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. When I spoke to Loktev last fall, I asked about how skillfully the five-hour-plus movie is put together, and she in turn explained how the situation in Russia grew even worse with the invasion. Since then, Trump's election in the United States and his radical re-shaping of the government have created an additional context for the film, in which Loktev's descriptions of Russia's strategies of suppression and deception start to sound even more like a frightening warning. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 299: Jordan Cronk on Berlinale 2025: What Marielle Knows, new James Benning and Kevin Jerome Everson, Olmo, After Dreaming, Paul Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Look at me, I'm at the 75th Berlinale! For my latest dispatch, I spoke with a regular of the festival, Jordan Cronk, about titles from a mix of sections. Films discussed include: James Benning's latest, Little Boy, and Kevin Jerome Everson's latest, When the Sun is Eaten (from Forum and Forum Expanded, respectively); Olmo, directed by Fernando Eimbcke, in Panorama; What Marielle Knows, a Competition title directed by Frédéric Hambalek; Paul, from Denis Côté (in Panorama Dokumente); and After Dreaming, directed by Christine Haroutounian (in Forum). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 298: Jonathan Romney on Mickey 17 and Dreams at Berlin 2025 Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Berlinale begins its 75th edition this year, and I've been busily seeing movies and talking to critics here at the festival. To kick things off I'm joined by Jonathan Romney (of Screen Daily and the Observer) to discuss the hotly anticipated Mickey 17 from multiple-Oscar-winner Bong Joon Ho, headlined by Robert Pattinson, and the latest Michel Franco provocation, Dreams, starring Jessica Chastain and Isaac Hernandez. Both were world premieres, with Mickey 17 opening in the U.S. on March 7. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 297: RaMell Ross on Nickel Boys Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. One of the great films of 2024 and now nominated for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay, Nickel Boys is the fiction feature debut of RaMell Ross, who adapted Colson Whitehead's novel with Joslyn Barnes, after previously directing the Oscar-nominated Hale County This Morning, This Evening. I was lucky enough to speak with Ross about making the movie, especially crafting the form, screenwriting, representations of race, what he brought from documentary filmmaking, casting, and some of his influences. Ross and his DP Jomo Fray use an innovative mix of extended first-person camerawork to tell the stories of two boys, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), in a Jim Crow-era reform school in Florida that's essentially a prison, including additional impressionistic glimpses of the world through archival video and film. (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor co-stars as Elwood's grandmother, Hattie.) (Note: this interview was recorded earlier.) Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 296: Chloe Lizotte on OBEX, Endless Cookie, Luz, The Reality of Hope, and 4DX Cinema Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. It's been far too long since Chloe Lizotte, deputy editor of MUBI Notebook, has been on the podcast, so we joined forces for one more (final?) episode on Sundance 2025... and beyond! We talked about Sundance titles OBEX (directed by Albert Birney), Endless Cookie (Pete and Seth Scriver), Luz (Flora Lau), and The Reality of Hope (Joe Hunting). But then we conclude by re-entering the multiplex in all its mysteries: my guest shares a beat-by-beat experience with the sensory-assault-style 4DX format (at a screening of Flight Risk). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 295: Amy Taubin on BLKNWS, Ricky, Sorry Baby, Alabama Solution, The Things You Kill Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. There are still great movies to catch up with from Sundance 2025, and once again I was fortunate to talk with the one and only Amy Taubin about her highlights. Films we discussed included stand-outs and prize-winners from this year's edition: BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (directed by Kahlil Joseph), Ricky (Rashad Frett), The Things You Kill (Alireza Khatami), The Alabama Solution (Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman), and of course Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor). Plus a few words from me about Train Dreams (Clint Bentley). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 294: Manohla Dargis on Sorry Baby, Atropia, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, BLKNWS, Omaha Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest Sundance 2025 podcast, I was fortunate again to discuss the festival and its movies with Manohla Dargis, chief film critic of The New York Times. In addition to reflecting on Sundance's planned move and the backdrop to the festival, we talked about a whole selection of films from this year's edition: Sorry, Baby (directed by Eva Victor), If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (Mary Bronstein), Atropia (Hailey Gates), BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (Kahlil Joseph), Omaha (Cole Webley), The Alabama Solution (Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman), The Ugly Stepsister (Emilie Blichfeldt), Rebuilding (Max Walker-Silverman), and more. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 293: Eric Hynes on Mad Bills to Pay, The Perfect Neighbor, Rebuilding, Seeds Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest Sundance 2025 podcast, I spoke with Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image, with whom I kicked off this edition's podcasts. This time we talked about a mix of films, both fiction and documentary, prize-winners and not: Rebuilding (directed by Max Walker-Silverman and starring Josh O'Connor), The Perfect Neighbor (Geeta Gandbhir), Mad Bills to Pay (Joel Alfonso Vargas), and Seeds (Brittany Shyne). Stay tuned for more! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 292: Alissa Wilkinson on Sundance 2025: Predators, Zodiac Killer Project, Life After, Middletown Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest Sundance 2025 podcast, I spoke with New York Times movie critic Alissa Wilkinson about some highlights in this year's edition. We ended up talking about key documentaries: Predators (directed by David Osit), Middletown (Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine), Life After (Reid Davenport), and Zodiac Killer Project (Charlie Shackleton). We also chat about the current climate for documentaries and how they go out into the world. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 291: Bilge Ebiri on Sundance 2025: Peter Hujar's Day, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Sly Lives!, The Ugly Stepsister, The Thing... Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. In chilly Park City—but indoors—I sat down for another Sundance episode, this time with Bilge Ebiri of Vulture / New York magazine. Sorting through the movies we've seen, we talk about the new Ira Sachs movie, Peter Hujar's Day, and the new Kiss of the Spider Woman adaptation (directed by Bill Condon), plus the documentary Sly Lives! The Burden of Black Genius (Ahmir Questlove Thompson), and two genre films: The Thing with Feathers (Dylan Southern), The Ugly Stepsister (Emilie Blichfeldt), and Together (Michael Shanks). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 290: Steven Soderbergh on Presence, shooting in the first-person, and recent viewing Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Steven Soderbergh's first-person ghost thriller Presence opens today in theaters—almost exactly one year after its premiere screening at Sundance, where I first saw it. I sat down with Soderbergh and asked him about directing and shooting the film, which entailed essentially embodying the character of the haunting presence as we move through a house of family and view their goings-on from a supernatural POV. He also shared his mother's crucial influence on the film; how he built up both suspense and a grounded family drama; and an early change during filming that affected how he would film the presence. Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, and Callina Liang co-star; Soderbergh re-teams with screenwriter David Koepp. Finally, we talk about some of his recent viewing—which the director famously chronicles on his website. Here he explains, among other things, why he's watching so much Star Wars, and also pays tribute to the dearly departed David Lynch. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 289: Eric Hynes on Sundance 2025: Preview and 2000 Meters to Andriivka Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival has begun, and I kick things off with curator Eric Hynes of the Museum of the Moving Image. We talk about where Sundance's evolving plans for the future, we trade a few titles we're anticipating in the lineup, and finally we talk about a film that premiered on the first night. That would be 2,000 Meters to Andriivka, the bold new documentary from Mstyslav Chernov, whose 20 Days in Mariupol won an Academy Award (and who has been a guest on this podcast). Much more is to come, so don't be a stranger! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 288: Mark Asch on David Lynch RIP, Best of Spectacle, Wicked, La Commune (Paris, 1871) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. In memory of David Lynch (1946-2025), I rang up critic Mark Asch to commiserate and reflect on his work, both movies and other art. We were also originally going to talk about the world of noted Brooklyn microcinema Spectacle Theater, where Asch volunteers, so we do that as well, covering rarely shown works from Logistics to Hamburger Dad. We also address Wicked, which revisits the world of The Wizard of Oz in rather different ways from Lynch. Finally, Asch shares his experience of watching Peter Watkins's La Commune (Paris, 1871) at Anthology Film Archives. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 287: Payal Kapadia on All We Imagine as Light Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light keeps gaining new admirers and garnering more honors (since winning the Grand Prix at Cannes last spring). I had a wonderful conversation with Kapadia about the myriad directorial decisions that went into creating her nuanced portrait of three women in Mumbai—two roommates, Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha), who work at a hospital, and their older widowed friend, Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), a cook who's in danger of losing her home. She goes into detail on inspirations for the characters, the details of Mumbai she strove to capture, her choices about composition and color and sound, the influence of her mother on her work, and much, much more—including, of course, recent favorites from her moviegoing. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 286: Dave Kehr on To Save and Project 2025: 7th Heaven, A Circle in the Fire, Maria Candelaria, and more Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. To kick off the new year, I welcomed back Dave Kehr, curator in the department of film at the Museum of Modern Art, to talk about a perennial favorite starting now: To Save and Project, the festival of preservation and restoration, which received a Film Heritage award this year from the National Society of Film Critics as well as one from the New York Film Critics Circle. Kehr takes us on a tour of several titles in the 21st edition, including: 7th Heaven (directed by Frank Borzage), A Circle in the Fire (Victor Nunez), Maria Candelaria (Emilio Fernández), Rosaura at 10 O'Clock (Mario Soffici), Raskolnikow (Robert Wiene), Mia Luang (Vichit Kounavudhi), and Shoulder Arms, a Chaplin mid-length being seen in its proper full form for the first time in over a century. To Save and Project runs through January 30 at the Museum of Modern Art. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 285: Amy Taubin 2024 Finale: Juror No. 2, Robert Frank, Nosferatu, The Clock, His 3 Daughters, Flow, Conclave Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest episode, I close out the year with the one and only Amy Taubin, as we catch up with a few movies we missed to talk about in 2024. The discussion includes Juror No. 2 (directed by Clint Eastwood), Nosferatu (Robert Eggers), His Three Daughters (Azazel Jacobs), Conclave (Edward Berger), and Flow (Gints Zilbalodis), plus two exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art: the Robert Frank exhibitions and Christian Marclay's The Clock. Thanks for listening, and check back in the new year for more new episodes! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 284: Tyler Taormina, director of Christmas Eve in Miller's Point, on Christmas Eve Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This year the stars aligned for a movie set on Christmas Eve and its director to hop on the ol' podcast in time for Christmas Eve! Tyler Taormina's Christmas Eve in Miller's Point is making its way through cinemas, and it was a pleasure chatting with him about his recent viewing, which brought a number of terrific titles to my attention, along with a few thoughts on holiday-themed movies. Gorgeously shot and designed, with a wonderfully lived-in performances, Christmas Eve in Miller's Point centers on an extended family gathering in a Long Island house on the holidays, as well as the particular rituals of teenagers getting together on their own. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 283: Beatrice Loayza and Adam Nayman Do Their Bests (2024 Edition) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Tis season of making lists and checking them twice, and this December, I was pleased to welcome back Beatrice Loayza (of The New York Times and other publications) and Adam Nayman (of The Ringer and elsewhere) to the podcast. Loayza and Nayman share a few outstanding films that stuck with them from 2024, plus an assortment of other high points from their lists, ranging from debut features to crowning works by auteurs in their prime. I won't spoil their choices here, so have a listen and find out. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 282: Thomas Beard of Light Industry on The Old Dark House, Japanese Paper Films, Community Action Center, and More Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I am a longtime admirer of Light Industry, home to wonderful screenings with original programming, and in my humble opinion a true New York institution. Shortly after Halloween, I was delighted to chat with programmer Thomas Beard, who together with Ed Halter developed and oversees Light Industry. The conversation begins with the James Whale classic The Old Dark House, and then moves through a discussion of film curation, Beard's development as a programmer dating back to Cinematexas, the history of Light Industry, recent screenings there such as the Japanese Paper Films program, and the vital role of preservation, programming, and exhibition in keeping films alive (or bringing them back from the dead). See what's showing next at Light Industry at lightindustry.org Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 281: Errol Morris on Separated, his new documentary about the Trump immigration policy of separating children from families Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Separated, the latest documentary from the Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris, is about the people and bureaucracy behind the border immigration policy enforced by the first Trump administration: namely, to separate children from their families at the border as a deterrent. In this new interview, Morris spoke with me about the moral implications of such a policy; about the dangerous moment in American history now, about his own personal history; about his use of dramatization; and about key figures who opposed the policy (Jonathan White, in the Office of Refugee Resettlement) and enforced it (Scott Lloyd, director of the ORS, and Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of Homeland Security, both political appointees). Separated airs on December 7 on MSNBC, and is also screening in select theaters nationwide. It is based on the book Separated: Inside an American Tragedy, by NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff, who also appears in the film. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 280: IDFA 2024 with Abby Sun on A Want in Her, An American Pastoral, 1957 Transcripts, TWST Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For my next dispatch from the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam 2024, I sat down with Abby Sun, editor-in-chief of Documentary Magazine, who has also programmed extensively. Amid the hustle and bustle at IDFA we discussed A Want in Her (directed by Myrid Carten), An American Pastoral (Auberi Edler), The 1957 Transcripts (Ayelet Heller), and TWST (Andrei Ujica). An American Pastoral won an IDFA Award for Best Directing - International Competition. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass